Swimwear, If We're Being Specific
by thejollyape
Summary: Established relationship fluff.


"Do you have parents?" Holly asked. Gail looked up from her corner of the sofa with a surprised expression on her face.

"What do you mean?" she asked hesitantly, muting the TV and dropping the videogame controller she'd been playing with.

"I didn't realise it was a trick question. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive," she immediately apologised, looking back down at the medical journal she'd been skim reading despite Gail's continued teasing. The reading and playing and bantering was a strange little spare time routine they'd developed...somewhere and somehow. And now it felt like it had always existed between them.

"No, I mean-" Gail began, but stopped and got to her feet. "Of course I've got parents." The last part added as she disappeared into the kitchen.

"I'm going to assume that's an off-topic topic," Holly answered in a voice that wasn't meant to carry into the other room. Either it didn't or Gail ignored the comment, because the only reply was the sound of the neighbor's TV through the thin walls of the apartment Gail shared with her two colleagues. Suddenly the background noise was joined by drawers being opened and cupboard doors slammed shut at irregular intervals. Something that continued for a few minutes before Gail returned to the living room.

Taking one look at the unopened snack bag in the blonde's hand Holly gave off a vehement, "No!"

"C'mon," Gail almost whimpered.

"No," she shook her head. "You open that bag and I'm leaving," she told her fiercely.

Reluctantly Gail sat the bag down on the coffee table. Her fingers lingering on the brightly coloured foil wrapping.

"I don't understand what you've got against cheese puffs," Gail said wistfully.

"I work with dead people and I've never come across a more offending smell than those things," she replied in perfect honesty, throwing the bag a dirty look.

"It's just-"

"No," Holly repeated.

With a deep sigh Gail let go of her grip and sank back into the sofa, her head bouncing lightly against the backrest. After another melodramatic sigh she turned her head to look at Holly and replied, "I have parents".

"I didn't-" Holly began, but seemed to change her mind halfway through the sentence. "It's just that you never talk about your parents, but I know your mom calls every other week."

Gail stayed silent for a while, again shifting her position on the sofa so that she was laying down with her head on the armrest closest to the armchair Holly was sitting in.

"I'm not saying you should come be my big spoon, but-" Gail said, wiggling her body and perched herself on the edge. "There's a you shaped hole, back there," she insisted, nodding at the small, but open space between her and the back cushions. She added a small poke to Holly's side as further encouragement.

With a lopsided smile Holly took the hint, dropped her magazine and squeezed in on what wasn't much more than a small motley looking loveseat. A few minutes went by as limbs knocked into each other and arms and legs were untangled and then tangled together. Finally they seemed to reach a tentative equilibrium with Gail's right leg anchored under the pillows and Holly's right arm locked across the blonde's stomach, keeping them both precariously in place.

"If I breathe too deeply we'll both fall off, hit our heads on the table and die," Holly warned, her voice a warm whisper against the side of Gail's neck, lips momentarily fluttering against the blonde's earlobe.

"Then don't," Gail replied with her eyes closed. Blindly she entwined her fingers with the ones across her midsection, her arm curling alongside Holly's. "I like this," she said with a content sigh.

"I like this too," Holly replied and this time deliberately pressed her lips to Gail's ear in a soft kiss.

"If Chris or Dov steps through that door right now, I swear I'll kill them," she threatened lethargically, eyes still closed.

"You probably won't have time. I'll exhale suddenly in surprise and we'll both fall off and die," Holly answered, pulling the other body a little closer.

"I've got parents," Gail suddenly repeated in reply to the question Holly had almost forgotten she'd asked.

Knowing Gail well enough the brunette realised it was a comment that didn't warrant an answer if she wanted Gail to open up.

"It's just...complicated," Gail continued after a few seconds silence. "I don't know."

"Since you're in such fount of sharing I change my mind, if Chris or Dov walks through that door right now, I swear I'll kill them," Holly echoed in an attempt to lighten the mood a little as the words didn't seem to come easy for her girlfriend. She was rewarded with a chuckle from the blonde.

"My mother is a special person," Gail ended up revealing once the smile on her lips had faded. "And I'm everything she's not, except for the things I resent her for being. I'm all of those things and I'm better at it than her."

Holly remained quiet, but placed her lips against the fine strands along Gail's harline, making the body in her arms momentarily shiver.

Turning over slightly so that she could face Holly, Gail added, "I don't talk about them, because I'm not sure I want them near you". Placing her arm under Holly too keep from falling off she looked at the brunette silently, a confused and mixed expression on her face. "You're mine."

A comment that caused Holly to raise an eyebrow, but she didn't say anything.

"You know what I mean," Gail defended. "I like that they're not allowed to touch you-" Holly's eyebrow arched higher. "-metaphorically speaking".

"Okay, I'm going to take these as compliments and try to ignore that you sound like a possessive jackass," the brunette said, and followed up her words with a slow kiss, and one lead to another.

Pulling apart after a moment Gail pushed back a loose strand of brown hair, securing it behind Holly's ear. "It's not about the gay thing," she admitted.

"Gay thing? Is that your term of endearment for me?" Holly replied with a faint smile. "So you mean I shouldn't take it personally?"

Gail pushed her head up and closed her teeth around Holly's lips, biting and pulling the brunette down for another kiss. "You're a jackass." She added a weird emphasis to her words with one more kiss. With a sigh Gail dropped her head back on the armrest. "My mother's like sand," she said, keeping eye contact with Holly.

"So you're mother is like sand," Holly tried out the words in her own mouth, trying to figure out what Gail meant by it.

"Yes," she answered her hand caressing the soft skin at the small of Holly's back.

"You're not going to introduce my to your parents anytime soon, are you?" Holly ended up asking in a neutral tone.

"No," Gail replied immediately, but felt regret flash through her as she saw the momentary self-doubt in Holly's eyes. Her hand continued its caress under Holly's shirt as she hurried to add, "You're my favourite bikini and my parents are sand".

Holly opened her mouth as if to reply, but ended up shaking her head, speechless.

"Okay?" Gail asked.

"Yeah, I'm just trying to sort out that analogy," Holly replied with a bemused look on her face.

"It's pretty straightforward," Gail insisted with a slight frown.

Another raised eyebrow from Holly. "So what you're saying is that I'm your favourite underwear?"

"Yes," Gail agreed with a peck on Holly's throat. "Or well swimwear if we're being specific."

"And you don't want your parents to make you uncomfortable wearing me?" Holly finished in a query, amused and still a little confused.

"Yes. So can we stop talking and go back to making out?" Gail suggested with a nod.

Holly looked at her intently for a second before licking her lips and deciding to drop the subject for the time being. Running her thumb along Gail's jawline and down her neck she eventually conceded with a "sure" whispered between Gail's parted lips.


End file.
